Fact finding on the Web

Thanks to Dr. Susan Keith, Rutgers University

Homework due Tuesday, August 29 (WILL BE GRADED)

Your name ________________________________

Find the answers to the questions below. Jot down the URL of the site where you found the answer, and write a sentence or two about why that site can be trusted. Use the checklist at the end of this document to help you judge the reliability of each site. You may use wikipedia.com OR an encyclopedia OR infoplease.com as a starting point but not as a source.

1. What year was the University of Indiana founded?

1. Answer:

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

2-5. Which country has the highest life expectancy at birth, and what is that figure? Which country has the lowest life expectancy at birth, and what is that figure? IMPORTANT: Find 2006 figures!

2. Country with highest life expectancy:

3. Life expectancy:

4. Country with lowest life expectancy:

5. Life expectancy:

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

6-7. The bolded paragraph in the partial story below contains an error. Clue: It has to do with the dates.

6. What’s the error?

7. What’s the correct information?

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

Four hundred years after he colonized what is now New Mexico for Spain, Don Juan de Oñate (half of him, anyway) lies here with scattered pieces of his horse as if dismembered on a battlefield of titans. By the end of next year, if all goes according to plan, this helmeted giant will rise, four and a half times as large as life, at the airport in El Paso, though without a vital attribute—his name.

Oñate will be simply “the Equestrian.”

As foundry workers cast and assemble what is thought will be the world’s largest bronze horseman—an 11-ton, nearly four-story-tall monument to Oñate by the artist John Sherrill Houser—the project intended to beautify El Paso continues to stir up ugly skirmishes in the culture wars.

Oñate’s complex legacy is the issue. Founder of the first European settlement west of the Mississippi and celebrator of the first American Thanksgiving, in 1598 on the Rio Grande, nine years before the Pilgrims landed at Jamestown, Oñate is remembered today, if at all, for savageries that some scholars dispute.

“He is infamous for his cruelty to the to the Acoma Indians, killing hundreds of Indians, punishing 24 with amputation of a foot,” said Representative Norma Chavez, an El Paso Democrat in the Texas House, in a recent speech ad newspaper column.

8-9. How old was athlete Babe Didrikson when she died? For this question, please give two online resources. Clue: When you check her age, look beyond the year she died. What other year comes into play?

8. Answer:

URL of online resource 1:

Why this resource can be trusted:

9. Answer:

URL of online resource 2:

Why this resource can be trusted:

10-11. Who is the education reporter for the Albuquerque Tribune?

10. Answer:

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

11. How would you follow up to make sure his/her contact information is accurate?

12. True or false? The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a fancy name for the Republic of the Congo.

12. Answer:

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

13. The flag of what country is a solid green rectangle?

13. Answer:

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

14-15. What’s the caseload of the U.S. Supreme Court justices today compared with 1960?

14. Answer for today:

15. Answer for 1960:

Online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

16. What’s the only frog in both New Mexico and Arizona that’s listed as threatened or endangered?

16. Answer:

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

17. iraqbodycount.net, which is run by researchers in England, estimates that between 40,000 and 45,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the U.S.-led military invasion began in March 2003. Other estimates have exceeded 100,000. According to the Pentagon, how many Iraqi civilians have been killed since March 2003?

17. Answer:

URL of online resource:

Why this resource can be trusted:

18-19. Look up a subject you know really well on wikipedia.com. Briefly critique the accuracy of the entry.

20-25. Use the checklist on the next page to rank the three sites listed below according to their usefulness, reliability, and credibility.

• Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Historical Examination http://martinlutherking.org

• The King Center http://www.thekingcenter.org

• The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King

20. Which of the three sites would you most use for research? ________________________________________________________

21. Why?

22. Which of the three sites appears moderately useful, reliable and credible? ___________________________________________

23. Why?

24. Which of the three sites would you steer away from? __________________________________________________

25. Why?

EVALUATION CHECKLIST

Who (Authority)

Yes ___ No ___ The author’s credentials are listed.
Yes ___ No ___ You can get in touch with the author.

What (Accuracy)
Yes ___ No ___ There are not typographic, spelling, grammatical or factual errors.

Where
Yes ___ No ___ There’s a reputable organization affiliated with the site or author.
Yes ___ No ___ You can find out about the purpose or intent of the organization.
What does the domain name tell you about the site? Is it a .com, .gov, .edu, or ~ personal site?

When (Currency)
Yes ___ No ___ The site is finished, not under construction.
Yes ___ No ___ The information is current. When was it updated?

Why (Objectivity)
Yes ___ No ___ The advertising is clearly separated from the contents of the page.
Yes ___ No ___ There is not any obvious bias or slant to the information.

How (Presentation)
Yes ___ No ___ The site looks professional, and it’s easy to find your way around.
Yes ___ No ___ Images and sound have been edited.
Yes ___ No ___ Images and sound enhance the content.
Yes ___ No ___ The external links work.

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